Henry Township

Henry Township

Ilenry, the third township, in the "order of their going," upon the records, was also called up June, 1822, and was a strip of territory six miles wide, extending quite across the county from east to west, and including what is now Liberty, Henry, three-fifths of Harrison, and nearly all of Greensboro township. This constituted the Second Commissioners' District. It at first contained 118 square miles, or over 75,000 acres.

Henry township now contains 36 square miles, and is nearly the geographical center of the county, and is the only one in the county in which the Congressional is identical with the civil township. Ten years after the organization of the county, this township had not over 509 inhabitants, while to-day it numbers over 2,800, nearly one-half of whom live in the "rural deestricts." It now contains 135 farms of near 160 acres each, and maintains a population of 78 to the square mile. There are 592 families, 67 colored persons, 121 of foreign birth, and 152 natives of old North Carolina, in the township.

Blue River, dividing the township nearly in the center, is too sluggish to furnish a good mill scat within the limits of the township. Duck Creek skirts through the northwest corner of the township, and Flatrock through the southeast corner. The table lands between these streams are nearly one hundred feet above the bed of Blue River, and, although there is perhaps as much rolling land in this township as any in the count}r, there is very little so rolling as to merit the term broken, or too much so as to admit of culture. Recent efforts at ditching and straightening the channel of Blue River bid fair to completely redeem the marshy bottom lands, which are of inexhaustible fertility.

The county seat being located in Henry township Avould of itself (even in the absence of natural advantages,) hav.e secured to this township an important position in the county, both

The fourth of the original townships, included all the territory lying north of Henry, and was eight miles in width and nearly twent] in length, thus giving it an area of nearly 160 square mill - or all. tut 105/HX) acres* Within its ample limits were all Of the present townships of Blue River, Stony Creek, Prairie, Jefferson, Kail Creek, and about two-fifths of Harrison.

In spite of the mutations which have since overtaken it, the township of this day remains live miles in width by eight in length, thus containing over 25,000 acres, which arc divided Into 2i»l farms, averaging about 122 acres each.

Prairie contains four villages, viz.: Luray, Springport, Mt. Summit, and Ilillsboro. About seventy families live in the villages, and two hundred and forty in the "country."' The Population numbers 1,022, or a little more than forty to the Mjuare mile. The value of farms and improvements last year -s.m |569,310; of town lots and improvements, $10,610; of personal property, $258,650, making a total for the township of fviS,»70.

one-half its surface finds drainage to the north and the remainder southward, and although tints situated on the "water shed," nearly one-sixth of its snrfat c consists of low, wet meadows, from fifty to eighty feet below the general level of the table binds. It is from these meadows <»r prairies that the township take- its name. These "flowerj leas" seem ever to have been coveted, although within the memory of the oldest inhabitant large portions of them were so Hooded with water much of the year as to be chiefly valuable as the resort of waterfowl. Today, however, under an extensive system of drainage, even the wettest portions of these prairies are heing thoroughly redeemed, making farms which for inexhaustible fertility cannot be surpassed anywhere.

The first election for Justice of the Peace was held July 6, 1S22, at the house of Absalom Harvey, Win. Harvey, Inspector. Wm. Harvey and Abijah Cane were, appointed first Overseers of the Poor, and Abraham Harvey, James Massey, and Robert Gordon, Fence-viewers "in and for said township." In 1826, the place of holding elections was changed to Sampson Smith's, afterward to Enoch Dent's, and again to E. T. Hickman's, where it remained for many years, but, in 1846, was changed to James Harvey's.

The first school house in the township was built on Shubal Julian's land, better known of late as the "Shively Farm," perhaps in 1824 or 1825. It was a small affair, with split saplings for seats, and a fire-place across the entire end. Senator Hess and Ex-Treasurer Julian graduated here. Milton Wayman was first teacher. This house, was also used as a church by the Baptists.